


Cantera: A Foundation Story-Part 2

by Zurrunba



Series: Cantera [2]
Category: Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Genre: Cantera, Fillian Empire, Galactic Empire, King Hiero - Freeform, M/M, Science Fiction, foundation, galaxy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21998506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zurrunba/pseuds/Zurrunba
Summary: The Galactic Empire has fallen, with kings, tyrants, and other rulers scrambling to seize power in systems across the galaxy. One such ruler is the Tyrant of Fillia, who thirty years before had crushed a rebellion from the planet Cantera, leaving desolation in its wake. Now the people of Cantera just wish to get on with their lives, but then from somewhere the tyrant gets wind that perhaps things weren't as calm and docile on that planet as the King of Cantera portrayed.King Hiero must thread the line between making his planet prosper again and keeping the tyrants at bay. But an unforeseen threat arises to threaten Cantera's survival.
Series: Cantera [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605262
Kudos: 1





	Cantera: A Foundation Story-Part 2

The factory continued on as it had every day for the past ten years. Putting out the parts to produce ships that were part of the trade that helped to keep Canteran commerce alive. It was uncertain whether the rulers of Fillia understood this. There were no war ships or weapons being produced here to resist the rulers of Fillia, but the tyrant won’t believe it if the wrong kind of information was leaking out to the ruling planet. Since the suppression of the revolt forty years before the Fillian rulers could be said to have legitimate reasons to suspect something. And they were right, just not in this factory in the capital.

The town of Geryl, fifty miles southwest of the capital, was where that happened. These factories at times had been changed once already when the Fillian tyrant’s men nearly sniffed out what was going on there. For that reason the factories of Geryl were ten miles below ground using secret undetectable power sources to run them. They appeared safe for now, but they weren’t even close to the number of ships they’d need to break off the tyrant’s yoke. That would require at least ten more years and a good deal of luck making sure that everyone involved could keep things quiet.

But there was the spy.

Hiero, the king of the planet Cantera was irked by it all. Since the planet’s dismal failure in its revolt from the Fillian Tyrant’s grasp their efforts to rebuild had been at first looked on suspiciously, but they’d managed to convince those of the Fillian home world to focus most of their resources elsewhere. Until two weeks before. It had been two weeks since the end of the tyrant’s last disastrous visit and he still hadn’t gotten word of the tyrant’s intended actions. If he could figure out what the spy had divulged the tyrant’s way it might be possible to neutralize that threat. The problem was the Foundation emissary’s information told him it could only be one of three people in Cantera’s government. The three who he’d always considered his best friends. Trying to dig out the truth was the reason he’d come to the factory. To see Oris, his minister of manufacturing, and have a talk.

The king was led to Oris’ office on the top floor of the eighteen story building. He decided to leave his guards at the building’s entrance. That was unusual, especially since they all largely knew there was a potential enemy in their midst. It was another ten minutes before the minister arrived. 

Seeing the king in his office the minister bowed before coming to his desk. It was cluttered with maps, specs, and sketches of all kinds. The documents were shoved aside to clear some space when he sat down. “Sorry about the mess, your highness, but I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“Well, I hadn’t planned on coming here until about an hour ago. I thought I might also like people to not always know my itinerary after our beloved tyrant stormed off the planet.”

Oris nodded. “Yes, of course.” The advisor then pulled out a couple sheets out of the clutter on the side of his desk. Interesting that he seemed to know exactly where they were despite how disorganized everything was. “I’m guessing you want to discuss something other than just manufacturing.”

“You could say that, though manufacturing certainly is something that makes up our concerns. What do you have there?”

“These are the reports from Sector 5’s manufacturing plants.”

The factories in Sector 5 were where the nuclear generators for weapons were manufactured. Production there had been having issues the last couple months. The king had asked him to investigate. What would he say? Could what he found be trusted? No point in speculating until the king heard what he had to say. 

“And what did you find?”

“In each of the factories there appears to be some kind of malfunction with the power generators. They are continuously being fixed, but then a few days later their problems return. I suspect that there is some kind of computer program causing the disruption. I’ve put some of my engineers on it that I know I can trust, but it’s obvious someone managed to get in there undetected to install it.”

“Are there any clues about who it was? Or if they’re still around to do more damage?”

“Not yet, but I’ve been able to rule some people out. Though I know we still have a ways to go.”

“Do you know how information is finding its way off the planet? There are only a few communicators on the planet that can transmit to other systems.”

“Or they are able to sneak it off by ship,” said the manufacturer with some thought. “I wonder if the tyrant’s spy might have some ship in the system that can be sneaked off somewhere before bringing it to Fillia. There is a lot of junk up there and a small enough ship might be able to hide.”

“Junk that big is up there?” the king asked in surprise.

“Well, of course. Remember all the ships that fought above this planet thirty years ago against the tyrant’s fleet? Well there are still several wrecks up there that haven’t been removed.”

“Why didn’t we remove them?”

“Originally we were too busy rebuilding the place. Then we decided that having that junk up there was good cover against the tyrants. It would make them think that we were still too disorganized to clean up our backyard, so to speak. Then we just kind of got used to it and didn’t want to waste the effort. It would take a while to clean it up. Where it’s located it doesn’t pose any danger to our station or traffic.”

“Perhaps it might be time to think about getting that junk out of orbit.”

“If you wish, sire, though it will take a while to remove it the conventional way.”

Perhaps there was an unconventional way to do it. That would have to be looked into. 

“How long do you feel it might take to root out the disruptive program and who put it there?”

“That’s hard to say, your Grace. I feel that the program can be discovered soon, provided there’s only one in question. The ‘who’ will take a lot of work. I might be able to speed things up if I had more people here to work on it.”

“Understandable. I’ll see what I can do about that. We need to know who could be passing on information to those they shouldn’t.” Provided it’s not you, he couldn’t help but think. It was all so strange to think of. He’d know Oris almost his entire life. The palace intrigues he grown up with he’d gotten somewhat used to, but this situation was cutting straight to his heart.

“I’ll find out what I can. Don’t worry about that. I do recommend that you keep your eyes in the skies for potential problems as well as those on the planet. That’s not my area of expertise, so I’d be asking those for whom it is.”

At that moment there was a buzz on his communicator showing that his wife Lulan was giving him a call. Hiero had met her once. Someone that you didn’t want to cross on the best of times. Embarrassed, he quickly explained that he was in an important meeting and that he would contact her later.

“Have I interfered with supper plans?” Hiero asked with a smile.

Laughing, the minister said, “No, nothing that dire. Just a little issue with one of our sons.”

This caused the king to break out laughing. Certainly not so dire as messing up supper plans.  
_______________________________________________

They spoke for another twenty minutes before the king felt they’d covered everything they needed to. The conversation with the manufacturing minister was informative, but it was impossible to tell anything about any treachery. All the issues about the factories made sense how they’d been discussed, and the king had verified from a couple other sources of his about the problems in the malfunctioning plants. Nothing certain could be determined. Now to Iar.

The minister of food and agriculture was one of the most impressive ministers in his government. Besides those responsibilities indicated by his title, he was also mostly responsible for economic actions. It was through him and his father before him that Cantera had been able to recover and rebuild as quickly as they had after the revolt. The development of trade then had been enabled through the machinations of both Oris and Iar. At first there were small trade routes opened into the neighboring planets of the Fillian Empire. As this was tolerated they pushed onward to the empire’s home planet itself. By the time of Hiero’s reign the home planet was among its biggest trading partners. Things worked really well, even with the corruption and politics on Fillia. 

But memories are long, and the Canterans have long memories. The Fillian tyrants still held a brutal hold over the planet that they decided to make perfectly clear every so often who was in charge. A former minister and his wife had suffered a gruesome fate after the wife refused to allow herself to be the play thing of the then tyrant. Husband, wife, and both daughters then disappeared, never to be seen again. The one son had managed to be smuggled off the planet and outside the empire with the help of unknown conspirators. The boy’s location was unknown even to that day. Resistance was still on the mind. Thus small trade routes began to be opened in other parts of the galaxy. Some of it the empire probably knew about, but if they knew the real scope of it things would go bad quickly. 

Counselor Iar rushed him into his office the moment the king arrived. Apparently he had just finished work with something before the king arrived unannounced. The minister’s wife Eileen had been sitting in the office until then. Seeing the king, she quickly stood up and glanced at her husband. With a quick signal from Iar she hurried out of the room.

“I haven’t interrupted anything important, have I?” the king asked. 

“Well, the unexpected appearance of the king has raised a few eyebrows,” Iar replied. “I couldn’t keep everyone from seeing and recognizing you. Word will get around soon enough.”

That was true. This was meant to be unexpected. With his mission to unearth a traitor, he couldn’t help but wonder what the meeting was that just ended when he arrived. The existence of the aide’s wife there made it more likely not to be anything devious.

“True. I did try to be discreet, but I decided sneaking in with a hood and mask might not show the best decorum and respect to my counselors.”

“But it truly would be quite an entrance to those you encountered,” Iar replied with a smile. “So may I assume there is a grave concern that brings you to the granary?” (Granary was an archaic term they’d chosen to designate the agricultural locations on the planet. There was no actual single place that ‘grain’ was kept).

“Besides our grain supply, I would like to ask you about our trade outside of the empire.”

The counselor took a deep breath. His expression was one of weariness like someone who’d been hit with a heavy load on his shoulders. “Well, to be blunt I can only say that we have a problem there.”

“A problem not discussed in our last council meeting?”

“Yes, basically because I wasn’t quite sure what things meant that had been brought to my attention by then. Two of our trading vessels haven’t returned yet. They had been sent to the Gondor System to trade some of our agricultural goods for iron. Of course, they had also been tasked with discovering the political climate in the area.”

“Was there anything in particular these traders were tasked with?”

“Not particularly, but we were paying attention to the tyrant’s official trade policies compared with the actions being taken by traders in general.”

“You mean the policies that we’re skirting the edges of with ours?”

Smiling, Iar replied, “Exactly. We haven’t crossed the line much, and I think they really haven’t noticed. But that might be changing.” The smile was now gone. “The last thing reported by either ship was that there was an increase in trade being pushed by those on Fillia itself. That’s something contradicted by our sources on the tyrant’s home planet.”

“How reliable are our sources on Fillia?”

“I thought they were very reliable. I don’t know if they could be compromised. I think Grij may be the best one to answer that. The defense minister’s budget is geared more in that area.”

“Yes, I’ll certainly ask him, though he seemed to think that gossip is rife in most areas we might find intelligence.” 

“It could easily be both,” replied Iar. “I don’t think he was telling us everything he knows. That one’s always secretive, like he doesn’t want to show all his cards even with things we might need to know.”

Hiero couldn’t argue with that. Grij always seemed like he was holding back. But then, the defense may be right that one shouldn’t throw out every bit of gossip one comes across. It could easily leave the king to chase shadows in all directions. Was Iar trying to divert the king’s attention in another direction to keep suspicion away? Again, there wasn’t enough information.

“Is there anything else you feel important? Oris told me of possible sabotage in the industrial plants. Has there been anything like that on the trade or agricultural side of things?”

The counselor laid back in his chair and closed his eyes. “Other than what I told you, I don’t know what to say. So far our food supplies and trade with the nearby planets in the empire haven’t been affected. Does there have to be anything more for things to be bad?”

“I suppose not. What you’ve told me is bad enough to warrant concern.” Then something crossed his mind. “Are there any other ships or connections we have in or near the Gondor System?”

“Not exactly,” Iar replied. “Just one of our traders who’s set up shop on the neighboring planet, but he’s only been there a couple months and still making connections. As for when he can reach out to Gondor is anyone’s guess.”

The king nodded. They spoke for a few more minutes before ending the discussion and departing. He did his best to leave as discretely as he did when arriving. No matter how well he succeeded in fooling people, it was best to act like everything was going as he planned. He passed Iar’s wife on the way out. She was sitting on one of the benches in the waiting area. As soon as the king was about out of sight she hurried back into her husband’s office. That made him wonder just what those two might have been discussing when he arrived.  
______________________________________________

Grij was a more difficult to track down. His official office was in the palace, as his official title was Chief Aid to the King. There were several other offices and buildings across the planet that he found himself at times. It was unlikely he’d head off to one of those locations on one of the other continents. Finally one of Grij’s assistants informed him that he might be found in one of his unofficial locations on the edge of the capital. This unofficial office happened to be in a basement of a rundown bar. The king would have to get a much better disguise if he wanted to catch him unexpectedly, if that were possible.

The existence of the king’s three body guards and a royal seal told those in charge of the pub that someone with official business was demanding Grij to speak with him. Only the bar tender was shown the seal. The king was led down stairs while his guards remained in the shuttle outside. What he had to talk about he wanted nobody else to hear. Of his three advisors Grij was the most mysterious. That didn’t mean the king wasn’t aware of most of the man’s career to this point. He had been in the intelligence service of the Fillian Empire stationed in one of the nearby systems. During the revolt he’d aided the rebels by distributing incorrect information to the Fillian forces. At the end of the revolt he’d fled into hiding. He secretly appeared to Hiero’s father about a decade later to offer his assistance.

“Your highness,” the counselor had stood up and came around his desk giving the king a deep bow. “I have to admit that I didn’t catch onto your intended visit here until about ten minutes before you arrived. I must be getting sloppy.”

The king smiled. “Well, I’d attribute it to several people keeping their promises not to let you know I was seeking you out. I think somewhere in that grapevine someone overheard who hadn’t been sworn to secrecy.”

“Well, regardless of the ‘how’, I believe some introductions are in order.”

At this point Grij pointed to four others sitting in chairs in the somewhat cramped space of this room that looked almost like an ancient prison. It was about half the size of his office where the council had met a couple weeks before. Hiero had to admit that this was probably the last place somewhat might think to look for Cantera’s military leaders.

Starting on his left he pointed to each of them in turn. “This is General Yetz in charge of logistics in this system.” She was an older woman the king had met a couple times, but had spoken very little to. This was the first time he’d seen her wearing a Canteran uniform. The younger woman next to her was identified as Captain Tya who was assistant to the one in charge of orbital defenses. The next to be introduced was General Vion, a man who was the youngest general Hiero had ever met who was in charge of military strategies. The last one was Colonel Gur, the oldest one in the room and the king knew as Grij’s assistant. He did a lot of the counselor’s communications with the king. He had retired over a decade before, but Grij had personally brought him out to work with the military’s organization. How the counselor had managed to convince him to do so Hiero couldn’t imagine.

“I take it that you wish to have a private conversation with the defense minister,” said Gur just before standing up to do his own bow to the king. The other three quickly followed suit.

“Yes, that was the idea,” said Hiero.

When the four started for the door Grij said, “But don’t leave the bunker here, as I wish to speak with you once the king is done.” The four shuffled out, Tya being the last. Her gaze locked onto the counselor’s and then the king before closing the door. Her expression was obvious. She needed to talk with Grij about something in private.

The counselor waited for the king to sit at one of the chairs before he did the same. He made it a point not to sit behind the desk. That would conflict with decorum. Such an action would indicate that the one coming in was of a higher station than the king.

“What can I do for you, your highness?”

“It seems I came upon some kind of defensive meeting. Is there something that I should be concerned with?”

“Not at this time,” Grij replied. “This was a weekly meeting we bring together to compare notes. Though what Captain Tya wished to speak with me about might cause some alarm.”

“So you already spoke with her?”

“Not yet, but I do know what she wished to discuss. There’s a reason why she was at the meeting and not Admiral Shore.”

Yes, it would make more sense for Admiral Shore to be at such a meeting. No matter what the captain’s function was. 

“And why is that?”

“The admiral was attacked in his quarters on Station One four days ago. Last I heard he was in critical condition,”

The king couldn’t help but jump to his feet. “The commander of orbital defense was attacked and nobody told me? What’s going on here, Grij.”

“I’m sorry, your highness, but I’ve been doing my best to keep everything under wraps. Very few people know about it and those that do are almost all on the base. I’m keeping this contained so that I can keep things going as smoothly as possible. I felt we couldn’t have a huge ruckus arising here with the tyrant’s having such a close eye on us.”

As much sense as that might make, it took a moment for Hiero to calm himself down. Was Grij showing some sign that maybe he couldn’t be trusted after all?

“Four days is still a long time to keep me in the dark. What’s going on that you haven’t told me?”

“That’s complicated, Your Grace, as I’m not quite sure how to explain it. I guess to begin with there have been three murders that have taken place on Station One over the past three months. At the time I considered it a matter of internal security within our military apparatus. I assume you don’t want to hear every time a crime is committed somewhere within the defense organizations. That, of course, changed with the attack on the admiral. Until him those attacked were all low level soldiers.”

“Is there any clue as to what’s happening up there? Are there any such problems happening on the other four stations?”

“Nothing like this, I can assure you.”

Now the counselor’s calm façade seemed to be breaking a little. A frown came on his face and a look of deep contemplation. 

“The attacks started about a week after our last diplomatic mission was sent to Trantor to do some research into interstellar topography of this sector.”

“For what purpose could that serve? We already have maps and charts of this sector.”

“Yes, we do, but I have reason to believe that what we have is incomplete, or sorely out of date. I’m sure you know that stars do slowly move over time, forcing the need of new calculations.”

“Again, surely our existing maps can be correlated just fine here on Cantera.”

“To a certain degree, yes, but what about all the imperial constructs that were put up in the systems around us? Since the fall of the empire two centuries ago a lot of information seems to have been lost. What we have in our computer files are essentially those from Fillia that were acquired a long time ago. From what I can tell there are some systems that for some reason aren’t in our charts. That was one of the purposes of the last mission, to access the Galactic Library and see what they might show.”

“And you think that this relates to the murders?”

“Two of those murdered were a part of that mission. Admiral Shore was the one that they reported to.”

“And the third one who was killed?”

“I believe she interrupted something and saw something she shouldn’t have. They killed her for it.”

None of this sounded anything like a coincidence. One might think there was some serial killer on the base choosing victims for some reason, but having three of them connected with the mission to Trantor threw that notion out the window.

“Are there any leads on finding the killer, or killers?”

“There are a few. Almost no trace was left behind for the investigators to find, but the attack on the admiral left him alive. If he survives we might get more information we need.”

“The admiral’s condition is still in doubt?”

“Perhaps not so much as four days ago, but he’s still critical.” Shaking his head, the counselor then said, “But since what we’ve just been discussing is clearly news to you, I have to assume you have another reason to speak with me.”

All this talk about murders and the admiral had made him forget his original reason for coming there. “Yes, there are a couple things, actually. I spoke with Iar yesterday about our trading ventures we’ve been conducting outside of the Fillian Empire…”

He spoke of the missing ships and increased Fillian activities taking place in the Gondor System reported and the fact that these activities weren’t receiving confirmation from sources on the Fillian home planet. He also spoke of the sabotage that was taking place with some of manufacturing plants spoken of by Oris. Since there was no official intelligence gathering group the king had, Grij would be the most likely person to have other sources to draw on.

“Sabotage, murder, and vanishing ships,” Grij finally said after the king was finished. “There are a couple people I can check with, but they’ll expect to get something substantial out of it.”

“Isn’t that always the case?” the king replied. He didn’t mention what the Foundation representative Tempus had told him about one of those three potentially being a traitor. He would need to speak with Tempus again soon, if the man hadn’t already left the planet. “What do you think it’ll cost? I hope it won’t break the bank.”

Smiling, the counselor replied, “It won’t do that. In fact there are other things besides credits that can persuade them, but they’ll be paid some credits as a sweetener. Always leave them with the potential for more if they should be useful.”

“So long as someone else doesn’t outbid us from the Fillian side.”

“Not likely, your Grace. Not when the things they want can only come from us.”

“Dare I ask what these other things are? I’d hate to think what you might have to give these types to make it worth their while.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be selling us out to anyone, your Grace. However, some things obtained from the Galactic Library will certainly interest one on the Fillian home world. And information from our planet’s archives can sway one on the planet Muyan.”

Muyan was one of the few planets within the Fillian Empire that could still be said to be under the influence of Cantera. There were four altogether, though before the botched revolt it had been as many as ten systems.

“Alright. Keep me posted, then; about this and your murder investigation on Station One. With the attack on Admiral Shore I fear that our beloved tyrant may be more informed than we realize.”

“Agreed, your highness. I assure you that when I told you in our last meeting that something like gossip was what was responsible for the tyrant’s suspicions. Now I no longer think so. Someone is disrupting things here and likely passing things to Fillia. Since there hasn’t been an all-out attack on the planet yet we should consider the possibility that another party separate from the tyrant himself may be at work.”

That possibility couldn’t be ignored. There were factions on Fillia the same as there were in every kingdom or empire. Fillia and Cantera were no exceptions. How could he uncover the factions at work here?

The king left the bunker and headed up the stairs. He did his best not to appear to be rushing to get out, no matter how anxious he was to return to the palace. This bar was a bit too creepy for his liking. The four visitors to Grij all bowed their heads to the king before they returned to the odd council room.  
______________________________________________

Having spoken with his three advisors there wasn’t a lot for him to go on to prove or disprove Tempus’ suspicions. All three of them had discussed major issues that would affect the planet if not dealt with. He’d already confirmed most of what Iar, Grij, and Oris had told him. Enough that he was sure that things weren’t being made up to distract him. A clever person in the right place could be the orchestrator of the problem that they claim to be dealing with, but so far he hadn’t found evidence of that disturbing notion. So what should he do? And how long did he have to straighten things out before the tyrant found out what they were up to or he found himself on the receiving end of a blaster from some ambitious assassin?

Returning to the palace he entered his office to consider what he’d just learned. The computer system in this room gave him access to any computer system he wished to see with the right commands. The information he’d gathered from the three ministers was added to a file created for his investigation into the traitor in his midst. After he was done it was recoded into a file that only he had access to. Extra precautions were made so that the file itself wouldn’t even be visible without the king’s voice and other things he possessed. Best to be thorough. Now he had to find Tempus. Hopefully he was still on the planet and not on his way to Terminus.  
______________________________________________

It had taken a week for the ship sent from the Rhea Alta system to reach Fillia. It landed on a secure base near the capital to get the lieutenant to the guard captain as quickly as possible. Fillian intelligence around Cantera had what they needed to prove that the king and his advisors were planning another revolt with the help of Foundation spies. There had only been one that had been detected, but where there was one there was bound to be more. Everyone knew that the Foundation had sights on conquering and creating their own version of a galactic empire. The Fillian Tyrants had their own ideas about what a Second Galactic Empire should be.  


Coming out onto the platform the lieutenant was joined by three Fillian security soldiers and headed toward the compound. Coming to the secure entrance the lieutenant placed his palm on the panel, opening the door. Stepping inside there was an explosion, followed by blaster fire. Before anyone could react the lieutenant and two of the security guards went down. The ship the Fillian soldier had traveled in on was blown to pieces. Moments later several dark figures appeared before the lieutenant, one of whom picked up the cracked screen computer pad with the information meant for the tyrant. Moments later they disappeared into the dark crevices from which they came before anyone realized what happened.

Here ends Part 2 of Cantera: A Foundation Story


End file.
